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Thursday, 1 January 2015

Comparison of Tibetan Theocracy and Bhutanese Dual System

The following points are drawn from
the book "The Fourteen Dalai Lamas" by Glenn H Mullin, Jaico
Publishing House, 2008 and the authors readings on Bhutan history.

1. Besides Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel,
there were others who were zhabdrungs
by title in Tibet. Some of the zhabdrungs in Tibet played some roles in the
reincarnate lives of the Dalai Lamas.

2. Of the many regional leaders in
Tibet, the Desi of Tsang region, located in the southeast of Tibet, has been
powerful to influence some events in the reincarnations of Dalai Lama, but
there seems to be no effective national political leader. The leaders of other
regions went by the titles gongma, gongsa, ponpo, wangchen, gyelpo, gyelchen, miwang, etc.
Thus Tibet was considered a federation
of nations.

3. The Dual System of Government,
established by Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel in Bhutan, in my opinion, was a system
that was less susceptible to absences of
reincarnations and whims and
incapacities of regents in its contemporary Tibet. While Zhabdrung Ngawang
Namgyel immediately began on his political work soon after arrival in Bhutan in
1616 marked by the construction of Simtokha Dzong in 1629, the contemporary
Tibetans established the Fifth Dalai Lama as their Spiritual and Temporal
Rulers only in 1642.

In Tibetan system, the Dalai Lama is
the spiritual and temporal head of Tibet. Under the Dalai Lama, he appointed
his chief attendant, changdzo, as desi and gave him the authority over
most of the temporal affairs. However, this system of desi, drawn from lay
people (including monks who turned lay people) died off by the time of Sixth
Dalai Lama. Since then, the country was ruled by the Dalai Lama and by the
Regents during the absence or during minority years of the Dalai Lama. It is
seen that aristocrats in Lhasa has many dealings with Regents some of whom were
mere puppets. The English equivalent for desi in the office of Dalai Lama is “viceroy”.

In the Bhutanese system, when
Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel entered long and final retreat in Punakha Dzong in
1651, the polity of Bhutanese nation was firmly established through the Dual
System. In this, the spiritual authority was given to the Je Khenpo while the temporal authority was given to the Druk Desi, his three Poenlops and Dzongpoens. This system had a well-defined chain of power, accountability
and geopolitical regions of control and dzongs
as regional offices. The added advantage of this system is it did not depend on the reincarnation of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namyel
while the Tibetans spent so much time and risked while in the search of Dalai
Lama reincarnate.

4. When Zhabdring Ngawang Namgyel
entered into retreat in 1651, his death was kept secret for so many years. The Fifth
Dalai Lama entered retreat and his death in 1682 was kept secret for many years
by his trusted Desi. While this technique helped consolidate the Bhutanese
state, in the case of the Dalai Lama, it led to some complications in the
process of recognition of the Sixth Dalai Lama.

5. In the biography of Sixth Dalai
Lama (1683-1706), references are made to Arunachal Pradesh but there are not
many evidence to say it was part of Tibet. However, in this part of the story,
Bhutan is written as a separate nation. In fact, the attendants of Dalai Lama express
fear of Bhutanese military, their might and power in the nearby regions of Mon
Tawang, present day India.

6. Kazi Ugyen Dorji had been involved
in mediation processes with Tibet before the Younghusband mission of 1904. Over
time, it becomes difficult for him to carry out his work to the satisfaction of
the British and the Tibetans alike. Thus, First King Ugyen Wangchuck steps in
to work as the mediator, which in fact (looking at it from the present
standing) was a marvellous diplomatic feat.

7. The Younghusband mission of 1904
(of which First King Ugyen Wangchuck was a part of) made gains for the British
India through the Anglo-Tibetan Treaty. However, in the process of getting this
treaty signed, Younghusband fell out of favour of the Home Office of the United
Kingdom (as described below).

The mission to Tibet in 1902-03 was jointly
led by Lord Curzon, the viceroy of British government in Calcutta and Colonel
Francis Younghusband. This mission travels up to the western Tibetan border and
returns.

In 1904, the mission is led by Colonel
Francis Younghusband. He travels up to Yatang, the border town in western Tibet
and waits for order from the British Government to invade Tibet with much
caution in the context of the Great Game of the British and Russian empires. He
was a kind invader as he compensates the locals for the damage and pays for
food for his soldiers.

While in Tibet, the Thirteenth Dalai
Lama was in a losum retreat, and
Younghusband forces the Regent to sign the Anglo-Tibetan Treaty of 1904. The
terms of the treaty greatly favours British India. These manners of Younghusband
is not favoured by the Home Office in UK, Lord Curzon is replaced by someone
less knowledgeable of the situation. The gains made here is lost in the
following years as all terms of this treaty was repudiated by the British-China
Treaty of 1906 and British-Russia Treaty of 1907.

This mission and events surrounding
1907 was undesirable to Tibetans. However, it did so much good for Bhutan
leading to establishment of secular monarchy and knighthood of Sir Ugyen
Wangchuck.

8. In 1905 when Trongsa Poenlop Ugyen
Wangchuck attended the reception of Prince of Wales in India, it was clearly
understood that Bhutan had political unison and a state leadership. For this
event as a representative of Tibet, the Panchen Lama attends it after much political,
diplomatic and bureaucratic harassment in his own country.

9. The political predicament of Tibet
can be understood in the context of the Great Game of Empires. Notable of the
legal documents relating to this is the Chefoo Convention 1876 and revised 1886,
British-China Treaty of 1906, British-Russia Treaty of 1907 and Shimla Convention
1913-14 (interested readers may explore more on this point).

10. Through the biography of series of
reincarnation of Dalai Lamas, it can be seen that the Chinese (also through the
course of change in their own history) claims control over Tibet using events long
gone in history through interpretations suited to fit the interest of present
times. As mentioned earlier in point number 4, 5 and 7, Bhutan has stood
independent and stood clearly away from the Tibetan political situations
through the functions of the Dual System since 1651 and the Wangchuck Monarchy
since 1907.

In conclusion, I would like to focus
on the significance and relevance of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel and King Ugyen
Wangchuck to the understanding of the present standing of a prospering
Bhutanese nation. These thoughts came about after reading the book, "The
Fourteen Dalai Lamas" by Glenn H Mullin, Jaico Publishing House, 2008.

The book was a biography on the sacred
legacy of the Dalai Lama reincarnations. The stories and events cover almost
all of Tibetan history. As biographies of lamas are written in Tibetan or
Bhutanese context, it gives more importance to the religious activities and
less on other activities. The comparisons drawn here are only few aspects of political
state of contemporary Tibet through history.

The Dalai Lama and many other sacred
lineages of reincarnations associated and mentioned in the book merit its own reverence
and respect.

In this write up, the names and dates
of events are not mentioned to avoid loaded-information and readers are welcome
to explore on these from other sources.

To end this write up, I acknowledge
that I am neither learned on the sacred masters of Tibetan and Mahayana
Buddhism nor a studied scholar on history. Written on the New Year Day of 2015,
Thinley Dorji, Colombo, Sri Lanka.